Hello W8LV Oldie/Newbie

[W8LV]

Hi,

My name is W8LV Bill.

My Motto (as in my Bio, and Stolen from Honda):

"You Meet the Nicest People on a QRP Rig."

And that has held Quite True over the years.

I have questions, AND I have answers. Happy to help anyone, can Elmer/Menter here in Circleville, Ohio... AND Learning myself from these young guys who do digital is one of my goals. Looking at the little MFJ Magic Box Interface to do that for a start.

I did do Packet with the Mir when that was up now many years ago. And before that, decoded WLO and the like with a Commodore 64.

I also experiment with magnetohydrodynamics, in the goal of an Artifical Heart/LVAD with no moving parts, and other applications that I am not at Liberty to mention. We live in a very litigious society when it comes to Patents, and it seems (to me) in general a much nastier arena in our lives in general. Armstrong said it best (before he jumped out of a window) "They substitute words for realities. And then they argue about the words."

It seems like I'm always working, and have too little time for radio. Kids in College. Quite a Financial Drain.

I thought I'd give tapatalk a try, certain other places on the web are kind of "flame war" places.
I don't think we need that in Ham Radio, and anything Noxious I just don't want in my life...who knows how much of it any of us have left?

73 and All the Best!
DE W8LV Bill

Bio Here:
https://www.hamqth.com/W8LV

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

[GM0LVI]

I enjoyed reading your Bio Bill. Well written, interesting and entertaining too!

[W8LV]

I enjoyed reading your Bio Bill. Well written, interesting and entertaining too!

Thanks- You guys on the other side of the Pond are Awesome QRPers!

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

[W8LV]

I enjoyed reading your Bio Bill. Well written, interesting and entertaining too!

I read YOUR Bio after work today, and YOURS is Quite Interesting. My wife is a retired teacher. I have a Buddipole. (The dipole.) On second thought, I think the Vertical is better, since you can add more radials to improve it. With the dipole, what you have is pretty much what you have...unless you have a way to hoist it up a half a wavelength! My wife is Scottish. There was a (Pollock) Castle there, in ruins as we understand it, as late as the 1950's. I find it interesting that you too get performance out of the other antenna there even when you don't hoist it up. I find my "main" (outbacker) vertical does quite well. I think there's more to antennas than height. I suspect takeoff angle and capture are the more important factors, and suspect many aspiring hams defeat themselves by not even bothering to get on the air if they don't have a way to place a tall antenna. I am curious as to how local zoning regulations impact hams there. It's frankly quite a mess here. I am lucky where I live in that respect.

Do you ever make it to Dayton?
(Now held in nearby Xenia)

You might find this radio story interesting: My Dad was a Merchant Mariner during WWII. He carried supplies to the UK, and was also on the Mermansk Run. It's a wonder he survived. Ship had to put out distress call once. Storm, bombs loose in hold, rolling all over, the pallets tore loose in the hold of their Liberty Ship.The response?They moved the Convoy fourty nautical miles away from his ship in response... They were carrying that much RDX HE at the time. Having then no convoy protection and sending the distress call and rolling bombs really put them at more risk instead of less. He was in the Radio Room of the ship when Sparks got the order sent down to put out the distress call. (He wasn't a Sparks himself) They saw free floating mines all of the time. They got a lot of "strange" change course orders to change course as things progressed. That didn't make sense as far as the time table and fuel budget.  No Doubt in hindsight, Naval Intercepts and Decrypts were why. I suppose this is what saved his life.

73 and All the Best!
DE W8LV Bill

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

[GM0LVI]

I had a Buddipole too but only kept it for a year as I found it didn’t radiate all that well on a low pole and was a major time-waste tuning it and when changing bands. The Buddistick is much easier to set up and changing bands is quick and fairly easy. In June/July  as SV8/GM0LVI/P my Buddstick is mounted on a ground floor  balcony rail with 3 radials on the ground. I set it up initially using a small YouKits analyser and fine tune by adjusting the lengths of the radials. In September in different studio I use a full size GP and again the radials are run along the ground though in this case in a 2nd story apartment. Both QTHs are only a few metres from the sea. Location does play a major role in how GPs perform – get them surrounded by water, preferably salt water and they are hard to beat for potability, simplicity and efficiency. All my portable antennas are verticals in various forms, some use fishing poles of various sizes and the two I take to Greece telescope small enough to fit in a suitcase for air travel.
Zoning regs here depend on where you live and just how much metal you want to put up and if neighbours complain. Keep things below roof level and generally it’s ok. I’m in the middle of a village and just quietly ‘grew’ my masts. To start with I made a tilting tubular mast of 2” pole against a utility pole in the garden that had become redundant and the electricity company left it in-situ at my request. This morphed into a small retractable mast, again pivoted against the old pole and a few years later was replaced by a proper stand-alone retractable mast that now supports my quad. I don’t think I’d get away with anything bigger such as a lattice tower, but a friend  out the the sticks two miles from here has two massive towers as well as phased verticals for 80m!
Was interesting about your dad – must have been a pretty hair-raising experience. My father served in North Africa and Italy and my wife’s father spent part of WW2 in a Russian concentration camp before being liberated and serving the allies Palestine and Italy via a very circuitous route.

73/72 Dave